House and Dedeaux run 3DQB, a quarterback training facility based in Los Angeles. And one of their many notable clients is reigning MVP Matt Ryan.

Matt LaFleur, the Rams’ new offensive coordinator, spent the past couple of years as Ryan’s quarterbacks coach and is happy to see Goff receive similar instruction.

“I’ve seen the benefits,” LaFleur said while meeting with Rams reporters on Thursday. “What those guys do is pretty valuable, and it’s not always obviously with the time constraints that we can work with these guys. And I think they offer some things that maybe we can’t as coaches, from just a strength and conditioning standpoint in terms of how these guys train and keep their core strong, keep their shoulders strong.

“You’re talking about a long season for these quarterbacks. I didn’t see Matt Ryan fall off from day one to the Super Bowl. His arm strength was as good as it was at the end of the season. I think a lot of that was a credit to how he trained.”

LaFleur, who began his new job on Monday, indicated that Goff is still “experimenting” with his offseason program and that working with House and Dedeaux took place before LaFleur even joined the Rams.

MMQB.com earlier reported that Goff had been working out with House and Dedeaux.

House, who spent eight years pitching in the big leagues throughout the 1970s, began coaching quarterbacks by helping Drew Brees overcome major shoulder surgery in 2006. From there, House also worked with Tom Brady. And down the road, he teamed with Dedeaux, a former minor league pitcher and the grandson of celebrated USC baseball coach Rod Dedeaux.

The two formed 3DQB around 2011. The program uses biomechanics to help get the most out of quarterbacks, their training composed of four key aspects: functional strength and conditioning, mechanics and motion analysis, nutrition and the mental side.

Heading into 2016, 3DQB was working with the likes of Brees, Ryan, Brady, Blake Bortles, Alex Smith, Andy Dalton, Carson Palmer, Joe Flacco, Marcus Mariota, Eli Manning and Case Keenum, who began the season as the Rams’ starting quarterback.

Goff, the No. 1 overall pick in 2016, supplanted Keenum as the Rams’ starter in Week 11 and struggled over his last seven games, all of them losses. During that stretch, Goff had the NFL’s fewest yards per attempt (5.31), second-worst Total QBR (22.2), fourth-worst completion percentage (54.6) and fourth-lowest touchdown-to-interception ratio (0.71).

LaFleur, who will work closely with new quarterbacks coach Greg Olson, watched Goff at the combine last year.

“From what I’ve seen on tape, he’s got some of the key attributes that you always look for in a quarterback,” LaFleur said. “He’s a natural thrower. You never want to see your quarterback getting hit too much, but he doesn’t shy from contact. I think that’s true of any good quarterback in this league. You have to be able to hang in there in some uncomfortable pockets and some uncomfortable situations where you’re going to take a hit and deliver the football. He’s proven that he’ll do that on tape.”

As you might have noticed, the quarterback market drops off considerably after Cousins. That’s why trading for Jay Cutler sounds like such an appealing proposition. And it’s why so many teams are expected to line up for Tony Romo if the Dallas Cowboys release him. The Rams have been mentioned as a potential landing spot for Romo, but their biggest question at quarterback is whether Mannion, a third-round pick in 2015, is ready to be a full-time backup. If not, the Rams could bring in a fringe veteran.

But it’s Goff’s turn to start, for better or worse.

By the end of 2017, we’ll all have a much better understanding of how good, or bad, Goff actually is. The No. 1 overall pick in 2016, Goff never challenged Keenum for the starting job in training camp last summer and didn’t get the nod until Week 11. He started each of the Rams’ last seven games, all losses, and finished with the NFL’s fewest yards per attempt (5.31), second-worst Total QBR (22.2), fourth-worst completion percentage (54.6) and fourth-lowest touchdown-to-interception ratio (0.71).

But Goff also didn’t have any help, at receiver, along the offensive line or within the scheme. Now he’ll get a chance to play under Sean McVay, who helped Cousins ascend while serving as the play-caller for a quarterback-friendly Washington Redskins offense these last two years. And he’ll work alongside Greg Olson, who has spent 15 years in the NFL as either an offensive coordinator or a quarterbacks coach or both. Olson, who watched Goff closely at Cal, sees “tremendous arm talent” and said the key to Goff’s development rests on “being comfortable within a system.”

“This is a guy that we believe in,” McVay said of Goff at his introductory news conference. “We’re encouraged and excited about developing him.”

Notice I didn’t say “rebuilding,” because that’s not what the Sean McVay-led Rams believe that their rising sophomore quarterback needs. No, Goff just needs to be built, period, as an NFL quarterback. He came into the league last year as a raw prospect, and that’s still where he is.

The positives? The initial look that the staff has taken at his tape has shown that Goff stood in there behind a deficient offensive line, and displayed some toughness, which was apparent during a similarly rough year he endured as a freshman at Cal in 2013. Also, he has a clean, natural stroke as a passer, something that’s challenging to create if a quarterback doesn’t have it coming into the NFL. And he’s accurate and can make the throws now required in the offense that McVay and offensive coordinator Matt LaFleur are installing. That said, he has a long way to go to become the kind of quarterback that Kirk Cousins was for McVay or Matt Ryan was for LaFleur last year.

The process for Goff will start in the next few weeks when he begins work with renowned quarterback coaches Adam Dedeaux and Tom House. It will start with what, from a technical standpoint, is called “sequencing.” The idea is to align Goff’s shoulder turn and his torque so it’s one clean motion, and tie his feet together with his hips and his shoulders. And the overriding theme here is to create consistency and balance in how Goff throws the ball, which should help him both in a clean pocket and when things break down around him. Another improvement that the Rams and the QB coaches are looking for is better core strength. That’s one area where Ryan made huge leaps with Dedeaux and House last offseason, and LaFleur saw the benefits of it in the quarterback making throws he couldn’t previously.

The other side of Goff being raw is within the mental part of the game—he came from a pure spread in Berkeley—and the Rams will have to wait until April to see how well he can take the new offense from the classroom to the grass. But as the new coaches see it, there’s plenty to like, and the feeling is Goff will have a better environment to learn, after last year playing in an offense devoid of an identity and without bedrocks for the then-rookie quarterback to fall back on.

The House offseason work is strictly foot work, core development, delivery, eyes, etc.

These guys are highly respected around the NFL and have done amazing work with other QBs. They helped Matt Ryan retool his mechanics so that he could turn his deep ball into a strength this year. They were the ones who worked with Bortles on his mechanics prior to his great second year (Bortles didn’t go back after his second year, and his mechanics fell apart again). House worked with Drew Brees early in his career after Brees struggled out of the gate. Brady worked with House to refine his mechanics and throwing motion.

I’m not worried about Goff. He can play. That’ll show through in McVay’s scheme.

INDIANAPOLIS — Almost a year after trading a bevy of picks to the Tennessee Titans to draft quarterback Jared Goff with the first pick in last April’s NFL Draft, Los Angeles Rams general manager Les Snead said here this week that he would make the same move all over again.
Even though Goff started just seven games and didn’t do much to make many believers think he is a star in waiting, Snead is emphatic that the team made the right decision and would still do it again. We would expect him to say that, but Snead laid out some of the reasons why.
“Yes, no doubt,” Snead said during a break here at the NFL Scouting Combine. “Last year we were sitting at No 15 (in the first round) and we knew we had to find a long-term starter. We then identified Jared and we liked Carson (Wentz) too. I always say this about the calculus equation. Needing one is part of the equation. Identifying one is another part. But the toughest part is how do you acquire that guy. We found a way and decided to do it. That’s why we made the move.”
Snead said the team also looked at this year’s draft potential and realized they had to make a move last season, rather than wait. That’s why they gave up a No. 15 last year, this year’s first (No. 5 overall) and a handful of other picks to move up to the top spot.
As it turns out, this year’s quarterback class isn’t a strong one, so it made sense. Would you rather have Goff or Clemson’s DeShaun Watson or North Carolina’s Mitch Trubisky?
I’d rather have Goff, which is why the Rams making the move was the right one.\

Yet there are those around the league who wonder if Goff can be the guy for the long haul. Goff lost all seven of his starts and completed 54.7-percent of his passes with five touchdowns and seven interceptions. That’s bad accuracy, no matter if he’s a rookie or not.
It didn’t help that the Rams’ offensive line was a disaster, running back Todd Gurley struggled and the outside receivers were little more than average. The Rams finished 3-13 and coach Jeff Fisher was fired during the season.
“There was adversity, road blocks, hindering type issues,” Snead said. “But it was the first step for him to becoming a franchise quarterback. He didn’t blink. He didn’t mope. He didn’t shake his confidence. We saw a lot of what we saw at Cal in college, but what we didn’t know was when things went bad how would he handle it. And none of that shook him.”
Now Goff has a new coach and a new system. Former Washington Redskins offensive coordinator Sean McVay takes over as coach, and he is considered one of the bright offensive minds in the league. That should help Goff, but the team needs to get more pieces around him.
“Once we get Jared in the building, it’s going to be about teaching our system,” McVay said. “Seeing how he processes things, and he’s able to handle the above-the-neck information and then be able to translate it to grass once we get on the field. You see the traits. You see the characteristics. I am really excited to how he retains information, how it translates to the grass. But very excited about Jared and some of the things we’ve seen from him on tape.”

Goff has spent time this offseason working with Tom House, who has worked with a lot of NFL passers on motion and mechanics. House works with Tom Brady, so it has to help Goff.
The next step will be to spend time with McVay, but league rules prevent that from happening until later this month. The big jump for Goff this season will be getting through his progressions better. As a rookie, quarterbacks tend to get to the first or the second, but not the third or the fourth. You can’t win consistently in the league without getting to the third and fourth progression.
“He definitely got to two, but not three or four,” Snead said. “Those things are evolving. But his big thing will be calling protections at the line of scrimmage. Sean is a big believer in calling protections at the line of scrimmage. That’s a big pat of what he needs to do. He didn’t do that in college. He did very little of that last year. That’s something he has to work on.”
Even so, there is no remorse for Snead.
“No, none,” he said. “We looked at a lot of factors and made the move. We are happy we did.”
Time will tell, but judging by what’s in this year’s draft class, I tend to agree.

I got a call from someone that said they were Jared Goff and asked if I could help with his throwing motion. I said OK. We are going to start working right between the OTAs, and training camp. Thought I could do my help.

INDIANAPOLIS — A year ago, Jared Goff was in the same position as this year’s incoming corp of quarterbacks on Saturday — performing on-field drills at the NFL Combine to impress the league’s many decision-makers.

Now, Goff has seven games of NFL experience under his belt and has been working with noted private instructor, Tom House, to improve before the Rams’ offseason program begins in April. At the same time, Goff’s new head coach, Sean McVay, is putting together a plan to further his development.

“One of the things you appreciate about Jared is he’s going about it in a way that he is working with Tom House and those guys, who have a lot of respect in terms of fundamentals, the technique of the position,” McVay said on Thursday. “Once we get Jared in the building it’s going to be about teaching him our system, seeing how he processes things, how he’s able to handle the above-the-neck information and then be able to translate it to the grass once we get out on the field in Phase 2 in the OTAs.”

Goff had his share of struggles in the 2016 season, completing 54.6 percent of his passes for 1,089 yards with five touchdowns and seven interceptions. While there were myriad factors, some of Goff’s performance may be attributed to the significant adjustment from his Cal’s system to the 2016 Rams offense.

“When you do go from Bear Raid, spread — whatever you want to call it — it is different than what we normally do at this level and that’s just going to take re-wiring your central nervous system,” general manager Les Snead said on Thursday. “A lot of times, you’re going from two ski’s to snowboarding. You’re going to be able to snowboard at some point, but the first time you go down that mountain it’s going to be a little different. Last year was the first step in that.”

Realistically, that is becoming a more pressing issue throughout the league, as college and professional offenses evolve in somewhat diverging ways.

“One of the things that’s interesting when you really watch a lot of the college tape is these guys are almost exclusively in the shotgun,” McVay said. “Some of the pass concepts are kind of one-to-two reads where it might not be pure progression. And when you want to try to evaluate these guys, playing underneath the center, with the play-action game with the five- and seven-step drop where it might be dispersing the field or certain coverage reads, it is a little bit tougher to project.”

“I think it’s going to take patience with QB’s, but also wide receivers, even offensive linemen, and even running backs,” Snead said. “Because now you’ve got running backs lining up beside the QB and they run sideways, whereas in the NFL a lot of times they’re behind the QB running north and south. It’s seeping over to the defense too. We’re going to have to be more patient with these young kids coming out.”

These issues make it that much more important to surround a young quarterback with strong instructors. To that end, all of McVay, offensive coordinator Matt LaFleur and quarterbacks coach Greg Olson have plenty of experience developing quarterbacks.

Asked specifically about Olson this week, McVay called it “extremely important” to get him on staff in L.A.

“I think he’s a great communicator. Great teacher,” McVay said of Olson. “Really does a great job developing those relationships with the players that he’s been around. And he’s called plays for a long time. He’s called plays longer than I have. And he’s going to be a great resource and a mentor and that I’ll be able to go to for guidance.”

If there’s a frustrating element to creating Goff’s improvement plan, it’s that players can’t receive coaching from the new staff until the offseason program begins. That comes from the rules and regulations of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, enacted in 2011. Because of that, any interaction between McVay and Goff is essentially limited to conversational pleasantries until early April.

“Especially with that quarterback position, with how much there’s a mental approach, being able to learn new information — how am I going to be able to communicate play-calls in the huddle — there’s a lot of things that need to be done in a short amount of time,” McVay said. “That’s why it’s going to be very important for us to maximize that when we are able to get those guys in the building.”

Still, McVay has been encouraged from what he’s learned about Goff through his evaluations so far, saying he does see some similar traits between last year’s first-round pick and Washington quarterback Kirk Cousins.

“When you really look at some of the things that allowed us to have success in Washington, I think it was getting a bunch of different guys involved — using the width and the depth of the field in the pass game to make the defense defend every blade of grass,” McVay said. “And I think there are some things when you try to look at a quarterback, what you value, both of those guys possess those skills and traits.”

“And that’s why you’re interested and intrigued to get Jared in the building,” he continued. “How is he going to process our offense? How does he handle the verbiage — being able to communicate in the huddle and kind of command that huddle and that respect of his teammates? But just from a natural thrower, the toughness, some of those things that we really value — you definitely see that in both of those guys.”

And so while Goff’s development will be a process, it’s one that is already being meticulously planned out in order to give him the best chance for success both in 2017 and beyond.

“It’s a day-by-day process, like we talked about, and you see the traits, you see the characteristics,” McVay said. “But [we’re] very excited about Jared and some of the things we’ve seen on tape from him.”

LOS ANGELES — Tucked away behind the third-base dugout of USC’s Dedeaux Field lies a modest green rectangular structure that looks ordinary from the outside. Fans of all ages come to watch the USC baseball team without a second glance in its direction. But inside those walls is the Rod Dedeaux Research and Baseball Institute, a state-of-the-art facility (eight cameras rolling at 1,000 frames-per-second, three-dimensional analysis) that has attracted some of the NFL’s most notable quarterbacks.

It is run by Tom House, a former pitching coach in the major leagues and at USC. That’s right: Drew Brees, Tom Brady, Carson Palmer, Matt Cassel, Alex Smith and Tim Tebow have all paid a visit to USC this offseason to work with a pitching coach.

House’s contributions are widely recognized in baseball circles. The 65-year-old spent eight years pitching in the big leagues, compiling a 3.79 ERA. But he left his greatest mark as a pitching coach, tutoring Hall of Famers Randy Johnson and Nolan Ryan, among others. Ryan praised House’s work with the Texas Rangers in the mid-1980s.

“Tom is a coach that is always on the cutting edge,” Ryan said during his Hall of Fame speech in 1999. “And I really enjoyed our association together, and he would always come up with new training techniques that we would try and see how they would work into my routine.”

That sentence could be repeated by any of the quarterbacks who roll through House’s office these days.

“I’m a rotational-athlete evaluator,” House said. “Pitching, quarterbacking, tennis, golf, hitting … all rotational athletes have the same timing, the same kinematic sequencing — hips, shoulders, arms and implement. And depending on the verbiage, the same mechanics as each other. It’s all the same, in order of importance: timing, sequencing and mechanics.”

For more than 20 years, House and his staff collected data on the throwing motion of elite quarterbacks such as Dan Marino and Joe Montana without knowing how to use it. Then in 2004, San Diego Chargers offensive coordinator Cam Cameron recommended that Brees see his friend House to help with some struggles. Today, House and Brees are neighbors in Del Mar, Calif., and Brees works out with House just about every offseason. Brees’ workout opened a new line of opportunity for House, who also has a Ph.D. in psychology. He proceeded to draft a five-day program for quarterbacks that combines physical and biomechanical coaching with nutritional and mental/emotional instruction.

House drew up the program based on quarterbacks’ demand for him, not vice versa. He says all of his NFL business is generated by word of mouth: Brees tells Smith; Cameron joins the Baltimore Ravens and tells his new quarterback Joe Flacco (who missed his annual visit this year as fatherhood came calling); Palmer and Cassel hear about it when they return to their alma mater; Cassel tells his former teammate Brady; and it goes on.

“All this recent activity with quarterbacks is because of Drew,” House said. “They all come for different reasons, but they all get the best information we have to make them better physically, mechanically, nutritionally and emotionally.”

House’s decades of experience with pitchers, combined with his rare high-tech equipment, help him detect and correct even the tiniest inaccuracies. He captures all the data by sticking tiny sensors all over the quarterback’s body. When the quarterback throws, a computer is able to render a three-dimensional stick-figure representation detailing every phase of his motion, and the 1,000-frame-per-second cameras help both player and coach see what happens in a nanosecond.

“That’s what probably gets their attention the most,” House said. “It’s not what my eyes are seeing. It’s what the cameras are seeing. … It’s not what we think we see. It’s what is actually being done.”

This helped House point out to Smith that he was using his head as a lever trying to generate arm speed, thus creating shoulder ailments. It also helped him caution Brady (who had sought out his help) to keep his non-throwing elbow up during his delivery.

Smith has likened House’s expertise to that of a pitching coach in football. In baseball, coaches work specifically with pitchers and their delivery. In football, very few coaches focus solely on the biomechanics of the throw.

“These guys are already pretty good and they’re trying to get better,” House said. “That surprised me on their burning desire to get better. That’s unique.”

House isn’t planning on giving up his primary job with baseball, but said he will continue to provide instruction and analysis to quarterbacks as long as they ask for it.

“It’s a niche,” House said. “I’m proud of what we do and I think we’re making a difference with all these guys.”